Tuesday, October 31, 2017

[Updated from 10/30/17] The latest in a string of resource-privatizing GOP-crafted bills - - this one serves metal mining investors and will overturn a long-standing, bi-partisan Wisconsin law that has kept rivers free of acidic mining runoff - - isclosing in on Assembly approval:

A legislative committee has signed off on a Republican bill that would end Wisconsin's nearly 20-year ban on gold, silver and nickel mining...

The vote clears the way for an Assembly floor vote Thursday.

------------------He says "Wisconsin is open for business," but GOP WI Gov. and big business bellhop Scott Walker is packaging and delivering it to his backers right under our noses.To understand the perpetually campaigning and corporate water-carrier Walker is to understand how his one-party GOP rule steers state power and public funding to special-interests and donors who have made his career possible. If Walker is re-elected to a third term in 2018, you can write off Wisconsin as a traditional democracy and treat it like a private sector subsidiary that serves Walker donors, not voters or taxpayers.Some support for the argument:* Remember that among Walker's first actions as Governor in January, 2011 was to administratively suspend state review of a wetland-filling permit application filed by one of his donors to speed along a development near Lambeau Field.* This post among others explains how a donor's privately-owned golf course has gotten the attention and action from the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Administration and the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board.

Mt. Pleasant, population 26,000, has already committed $20,000 a month for a project manager from the Milwaukee construction outfit, Kapur & Associates. The firm’s founder, Ramesh Kapur, gave the maximum personal contribution of $10,000 to Gov. Walker in 2010; other Kapur associates kicked in at least $6,000.

The Department of Natural Resources has reworked details of a high-profile land transaction in northern Wisconsin that involves a major political supporter of Gov. Scott Walker after an initial deal drew sharp criticism and complaints of favoritism...

Uihlein and her husband, Richard, had donated millions of dollars to Walker at the time Uihlein wanted to buy the land.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported last year the couple donated $2.5 million to Unintimidated PAC, a political action committee supporting Walker's presidential bid that was formed in April 2015.

They also had contributed nearly $290,000 to support Walker's elections for governor. Also, Richard Uihlein donated $200,000 to Our American Revival, an organization formed by Walker in January 2015.

* A major lead paint maker was found to have donated $750,000 to committees tied to Walker and GOP legislators before and after the GOP-controlled Legislature rolled back lead paint manufacturers’ liability responsibilities.

* Another $700,000 was routed secretly to Walker’s campaign by an out-of-state mining company for whom Walker signed sweetheart legislation written with the company’s participation to allow the digging of a gigantic open pit mine measured in miles across the Bad River watershed and Penokee Hills in Northwest Wisconsin.

As I said, if Walker is re-elected, Wisconsin as we'd known it will be gone, and Wisconsin, Inc. will have replaced it.

[Updated] Yeah, why not let a Republican legislator junior emperor from Racineuse state power and law to dictate the makeup of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.And turn it from a citizen review panel to a police officer and fire fighter-run body that will further drain the City of Milwaukee of local control, again, and resident taxpayer money.Walker set the tone with Act 10, stripping away local governments rights' to negotiate with employees, and followed up later with a bill which erased Milwaukee's residency rule for public employees.Which means a remade Fire and Police Commission could be packed with police officers and fire fighters who live in Wauwatosa, Cudahy, Whitefish Bay, etc.Although to be fair, Wisconsin Republican politicians also will strip a rural area of its local control if big money wants favors.

The state Department of Natural Resources has rejected an ordinance developed by Bayfield County in northern Wisconsin that sought to put more restrictions on large scale farms built near a watershed.

His bill - - call it the 'Go Ahead And Dynamite Despite The Asbestos Act' - - is not a hit at local control. It the elimination of local control in favor of the company's control, with the blessing of the state.

Weak or disorganized opposition?Unstoppable pro-Walker networks and echo chambers?Newsrooms drained of staff and energy?Maybe you can get re-elected in 21st century Wisconsin - - after having made it harder for city residents and Democrats to vote - - through repeated attacks on the DNR, slams at unions, kicking the poor by freezing the minimum wage and pledging to drug-test public aid applicants, pretending to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, tweeting your picture wearing UW regalia despite never having taken a class there while corporatizing its mission and cutting its budget - - and never admitting error or making an apology.Weigh in.

Monday, October 30, 2017

And who is Sam Clovis, you ask, well, he's:* A Trump campaign official who urged a lower-level staffer to go get what 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton that the Russians were offering.* And a former conservative talk radio host and...* A climate change denier who is, wait for it...* The non-scientist whom Trump appointed chief scientist at the US Department of Agriculture, as I noted in May.Pretty much sums up Trump World, no?

So a water deal which suits Milwaukee, Waukesha and the other Great Lakes states - - and which reduced the amount of the diversion while limiting sprawl to the benefit of the region - - finally moves forward after years of foolish, costly and self-inflicted delay predicted in 2010:

The weakest link in the application - - and what will raise questions all the way from the Town of Waukesha to the City of Milwaukee, and with reviewers and regulators in all the eight Great Lakes states, is Waukesha's plan to send Lake Michigan water into parts of Pewaukee, Genesee and the Town of Waukesha.

Expanding the current service territory land mass by 80%.

That expansion - - mapped out and green-lighted by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission for the Waukesha application administatively, without public review - - plays some role in Waukesha's request for up to 18.5 million gallons of Lake Michigan water daily.

The City of Milwaukee continues to be interested in negotiating the sale of water to the City of Waukesha’s current water service area. The Milwaukee Water Works could provide your residents with a healthy and sustainable supply of drinking water at a rate that our competitors cannot even come close to matching

Taking action to revise the proposed service area now is likely to relieve you from the expense and time spent on challenges to your diversion request down the road. For the sake of your ratepayers and your timeline, I ask that you reconsider your position on the service area so that we can commence negotiations to serve Waukesha city residents with high quality water at the lowest possible cost.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

The Wisconsin DNR is edging closer to deciding whether Herb Kohler, a Scott Walker donor, can build another high-end golf course, this time on a 247-acre nature preserve he owns south of Sheboygan along Lake Michigan.

247 acres with forest, wetlands, perhaps Indian mounds with Lake Michigan access and side-by-side with a state park featuring sand dunes and unspoiled beaches is a significant, perhaps unique parcel in Wisconsin.

Also at stake: the integrity of Wisconsin waters, environmental rules, procedures. laws, and the reputations of several state agencies.I have written repeatedly about this issue, having referenced it in a Friday blog posting:

The DNR has been working closely for several years with a Walker donor to help smooth out his bid to launch the construction of a golf course in a nature preserve along Lake Michigan despite significant questions about rare dune preservation, wetland filing, the Public Trust Doctrine, fertilizer runoff and even the private use of acreage for a golf course building and pavement inside the popular Kohler Andrae State Park next door.

(The US Army Corps of Engineers and US EPA still have to weigh in, court action is likely to follow.)

The DNR's web page about the proposed project is here, and it further describes what the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board has already agreed to:

Master Plan Amendment

In 2015, DNR received a request from the Kohler Company that identified approximately five acres of Kohler-Andrae State Park lands to use in support of their proposed public golf course to be located to the north of the park. Specifically, Kohler proposed to construct and maintain the following on park lands: 1) a roadway and roundabout to access its lands; 2) utility access; and 3) a maintenance facility. In June 2017, the Natural Resources Board approved the department’s recommendation to initiate a master plan amendment process to consider these proposed changes.

The agency's analysis of the project's environmental impact statement has moved along since 2015, but questions about possible water contamination from golf course fertilizer and issues raised in an accompanying wetlands permit application had hung up the agency's review, media reported:

The site contains about 48 acres of wetlands, 3.69 of which the company has proposed filling to construct the course…

Environmentalists and a local landowner group have been...raising worries about fertilizer and water use and the effects of cutting large swaths of forest for fairways. The DNR...has requested a detailed fertilizer and pest control management plan.

36-year DNR veteran James Buchholz said in his formal comments that the draft EIS "is flawed and incomplete...lacks scientific analysis and study, and depends way too heavily on the Kohler Company’s own very slanted studies and papers."

Yet there are signs that the DNR is ready to wrap up its review; government agencies do not like to extend heavy lifting into the period between Thanksgiving and the New Year, so mid-November is the likely time for the DNR and Natural Resources Board to tie things up for 2018 and beyond.

The agencies are looking to hold perhaps three separate public meetings on project issues on the same date - - November 15th is a possibility- - to air its reviews, demonstrate that it has met all its obligations to the public interest and push the project forward.

That suggests the agency believes it has all the information it needs from the company and other sources about construction, water, wetlands, and other issues; experience shows public meetings and hearings can be essentially perfunctory, with boxes on input and procedure getting checked to comply with guidelines and law while key political, and policy and decisions have been made.

Bottom line: It's important that opposition be properly submitted, and that large numbers of people make a show of support with their presence so media and government officials see it all with their own eyes - - and I have no doubt that people will show up as they have for several years - - but the state green-lighting the project looks likely, and soon.

The meetings which the DNR and Natural Resources Board are likely to hold before the holidays are 1) an informational session on the wetland permit, 2) an informational meeting on the final Environmental Impact Statement, and 3) a public hearing where formal comments would be collected on the changes to the Kohler Andrae Park Master plan.

The three probable meetings could be scheduled at different times, but on the same day, at the same location.

Call it a recipe for confusion, and also a demand for large chunks of time from citizens on a working day or on already-busy evening: why not hold the meetings on successive days or a schedule which puts the public's needs first?

People can inquire about meeting plans and urge the DNR and the Natural Resources Board, (NRB), to make some changes.

What is hanging in the balance is the integrity of public water resources a stone's throw from Lake Michigan, not to mention the integrity of the DNR's processes and mission and the Natural Resources Board's park planning and management responsibilities.

Congressional probes into election interference by Russia get the GOP stall, Trump throws out distracting stories and a Mueller indictment has been filed - - so Ron Johnson coughs up the day's GOP nowhere man talking point and earns his daily $794 taxpayer-funded check.

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Friday afternoon that Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian influence in the 2016 presidential campaign, should step down.

“He should resign,” said Johnson, who is chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “I take the position that we shouldn’t have a special counsel at this time. We should let the (congressional) committees do their work.”

The only differences between what Walker has inflicted on clean air and water, and the people's rights to them - - and Donald Trump's assaults on the US Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior lands and clean government? Trump's reach is broader and Walker has been at it longer. Regrettably, both of these Republican corporate tools are going to leave our water, land and democracy dirtier than when they found it.And both told us precisely what they would do if elected.Trump said he would break the EPA into little pieces; Walker said he wanted a "chamber of commerce mentality" atop the WI DNR when he appointed former developer and virulent DNR opponent Cathy Stepp to run that agency for nearly eight years.And Walker? Within hours of his January, 2011 swearing-in, Walker blocked the review by the DNR of a wetland filling permit filed by a donor/developer so construction could begin on the donor/developer's timetable.And Walker's intentional, consequential and persistent diminution of the DNR's public oversight role, along with the transfer of state power and the people's resources to the private sector, continues unabated - - and also continues to define the goals of the regime Walker wants to direct for another four years.Key examples:* The subsidy-laden, record-breaking Foxconn project - - that $3-billion-taxpayer-dollar+ deal which Walker made in private with company officials - - is his re-election's 'Campaign At The Public's Expense' Exhibit "A.".He included in the deal unique exemptions for Foxconn at its projected rural Racine County site from routine Wisconsin environmental standards and reviews. He also inserted in the deal overrides of state constitutional protections known as the Public Trust Doctrine that bar in the public interest the filling of wetlands and other actions which obstruct the free flow - - thus its use and appreciation - - of public waters.Walker pushed the deal through the legislature and is willing to weather some bad press about keeping the final implementing contract with Foxconn secret in order to signal to all potential donors and well-heeded business and conservative advocacy groups that their interests are his interests and supersede the public's right to resources, and also the right to know.* The DNR has been working closely for several years to help smooth out a controversial bid by a Walker donor to launch the construction of a golf course in a nature preserve along Lake Michigan despite significant questions about rare dune preservation, wetland filing, the Public Trust Doctrine, fertilizer runoff and even the private use of acreage for building construction and pavement sought by the developer inside the popular Kohler Andrae State Park next door.With the cooperation of the Walker-led Department of Administration which quickly approved the annexation of the Town of Wilson golf course site in a nature preserve to the City of Sheboygan - - suppressing the opposition - - and parallel cooperation on friendly changes to the park's master plan from the Walker-led Wisconsin Natural Resources Board, preliminary approvals for the golf course from the DNR can't be far off. (The US Army Corps of Engineers and US EPA still have to weigh in, court action is likely to follow.)* Walker donors also won the right to permanent high-capacity well withdrawals, though a court, citing the law and The Public Trust Doctrine, has blocked the giveaway as unconstitutional.* And speaking of donors, remember how a key Walker and Trump donor got the inside track on acquiring primo DNR waterfront land? That deal fell through after media sniffed it out, but entitlement for the 1% was certainly in the air.So heads up, Lake Michigan shoreline defenders where the Town of Wilson borders just got redrawn to serve another Walker favorite, because in this state right now you have to fight the state from giving away what's not the state's to give away, and to pass on the state's legacy, too.* After years of minimal inspections and kid-gloves' enforcement which only ensured there would be manure runoff and well-water contamination by the expanding number of industrial-scale animal feeding operations known as CAFOs, Walker says that's not enough and has devised a new perk for major Ag interests:The transfer by executive action, and without legislative hearings or approvals of CAFO permitting from the DNR which the ingrates at Big Ag still sue - - and brag about defeating - - to anotherstate agency which, by law, promotes and markets milk, cheese, meat and other produce.Can you say :conflict-of-interest?"* Next up: more favors for mining companies. They're coming for your water, too.Again, I urge everyone - - citizens, teachers, candidates, activists - - to read up on the Public Trust Doctrine and demand that Wisconsin politicians abide by it, because Walker is lining up taxpayer-paid agency actions with campaign messages which reinforce his 'chamber of commerce mentality' governance, all the while to pretending the Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin Constitution, doesn't exist.Walker is trading our water for votes. Bartering public resources without asking for his personal and partisan advancement, though the resources Walker is dealing away belong to the people.

Professor Arlen Christenson, a Professor Emeritus of Law and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School as well as founding Board President of Midwest Environmental Advocates, lays out simply how the [Public Trust Doctrine] works.

“It holds that the state is the trustee of the waters of the state for the benefit of the people of the state,” Christenson said. “And so the trustee has a duty to care for, manage, improve and protect the water for the benefit of the citizens. It’s not as if the state owns the water, but the people are the beneficial owners of water, just as the beneficiaries of a trust

John Holevoet, director of government affairs at the Dairy Business Association, said... the authority transfer would be a “good move” from both an environmental and farmer perspective, and would mean the state’s taking a “fresh look” at the program that will “probably make it more functional and better.”

The specific duties of the secretary of agriculture, trade, and consumer protection are outlined in Chapter 93.07 of the Wisconsin state code. Some of the main duties of the office include:[5]

Promotion of agriculture: "To promote the interests of agriculture, dairying, horticulture, manufacturing, commercial fishing and the domestic arts and to advertise Wisconsin and its dairy, food, and agricultural products by conducting campaigns of education throughout the United States and in foreign markets. Such campaigns shall include the distribution of educational and advertising material concerning Wisconsin and its plant, animal, food, and dairy products. The department shall coordinate efforts by the state to advertise and promote agricultural products of this state, with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation where appropriate. The department shall submit its request and plan for market development program expenditures for each biennium with its biennial budget request. The plan shall include the identification and priority of expenditures for each market development program activity.

State aid to Livestock Breeders Association: To receive and examine, prior to its transmission to the department of administration, the biennial request for state aid of the Wisconsin Livestock Breeders Association; to transmit and make recommendations upon this request to the department of administration and the governor; and to advise as to the manner of expending and accounting for state moneys appropriated to that organization."

Established in 1983, this market order board has 25 members who represent Wisconsin's thousands of ​​dairy farmers. Its mission is “To help grow demand for Wisconsin milk by providing programs that enhance the competitiveness of the Wisconsin Dairy Industry.”

To staff in: External Services, Drinking Water and Groundwater, Water Quality, Remediation and Redevelopment, Enforcement, and Fisheries Management

From: Pat Stevens, Mark Aquino, Sanjay Olson, and Todd Schaller

As part of his multi-faceted rural agenda, Governor Walker announced Thursday that he has asked the DNR to start working with DATCP and the EPA on transitioning CAFO regulatory and enforcement authority from DNR to DATCP.

Because your program may work with CAFOs, we wanted to share this information with you. Please understand that it is too early in the process to even begin to outline for you how this will work or to answer the various questions you might have on hearing the news. Many details need to be worked out and any move will require legislative and EPA approval.

In general, we see this as an extension of our own alignment process where we have moved related programs once covered by two or more DNR divisions into one division to streamline the process. Currently, the two agencies have different rules impacting CAFOs, so it makes sense to evaluate how to consolidate them under one agency instead of having CAFOs answer to two different agencies.

We at the DNR have experience in these complex moves and changes. Alignment, HR Shared Services, and PECFA are all examples of how we can work through these projects that provide benefits and more efficient services for our customers.

No timetable has been set but we will begin immediately to explore how such a move can take place. We will keep you posted as the process moves forward.

Finally, it's important to understand that moving DNR work related to the state's more than 240 CAFOs - - most house dairy cattle, but don't forget the pigs! - - and their clean-air and water-related issues also physically separates the process from public oversight and participation.DATCP's building is located on the far east side of Madison, about eight miles from the State Capitol, the DNR, legislative offices and various public policy and advocacy groups long-located in downtown Madison.Note also that people used to connecting with the DNR in Madison by bus can get to the DATCP building - - but that trip adds another hour or so from the Capitol Square with a transfer at East Towne mall.Why should so many people be additionally-inconvenienced?I think we know the answer. * Long bus commutes, like cumbersome Voter ID laws which create long lines, lead people to stay home.* Or like the isolation of the regional planning commission in western Waukesha County, far from the Milwaukee population center, and not even on a bus line, period.Where government puts its facilities and how they are staffed says a lot about how that government wants to interact with the people who pay the bills.Back to Voter ID. Walker said the state would issue qualifying ID's at state motor vehicle offices, then closed some and didn't expand the often minimal hours to help get those ID's in people's hands.When it comes to public input, and protecting the state's waters which the Wisconsin Constitution says belong to all of the people, which side of the public-private line do you think DATCP supervision of big ag and big dairy is going to land?So many things about this Walker-ordered reorganization being done administratively without hearings or legislative action absolutely scream 'Big Business Wins Again, Public Loses.'Remember when former WI DNR Secretary Stepp famously complained that government should not:

Lake Michigan

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What water, wetland protection is all about

"A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist. Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution.

Banned in Milwaukee

The right, suburbanites say "No light rail for Milwaukee."

James Rowen's Bio

James Rowen, a writer and consultant, has worked for newspapers, and as the senior Mayoral staffer, in Madison and Milwaukee, WI. This blog began on 2/2/ 2007. Posts run also at various news sites, including The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's "Purple Wisconsin."